1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improvements in apparatus for separating packaged products from their containers and recovery of the products substantially free of contamination by particles of wrapper material.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art for the present invention is represented by U.S. Pat. No. 3,386,602 which issued on June 4, 1968 to J. S. Kanarek for De-Packaging Apparatus and Method (Kanarek I) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,863,790, which issued to the same inventor on Feb. 4, 1975 for Wrapper Removal Apparatus (Kanarek II). The Kanarek I reference is directed to an apparatus wherein packaged products were batch fed via a hopper to rotating cutters which slit open the packages. The open packages were then delivered to a rotating, perforated drum or tumbling station to separate the product from the package. Since the packaged products are batch fed into the hopper without regard to orientation the Kanarek I apparatus exhibited a tendency to jam, particularly when boxed products were being unpackaged which required the machine to be shut down for manual clearing. The batch-feed was further a relatively slow process.
Kanarek II addressed the problem of unpackaging solid articles from wrappers and involved orienting the package product for two separate wrapper slitting operations. Separation of the product from the wrapper was still accomplished by a tumbling action. Many modern products are being packaged in materials having a core of recycled paper. A characteristic of this material is that exposed surfaces of the recycled paper tend to flake away under agitation and create an unacceptable contamination problem.